It’s pretty clear to see – while the Democrats are looking forward – the Republicans are looking backward

It’s pretty clear to see – while the Democrats are looking forward – the Republicans are looking backward

Jan. 26, 2011 10:36 am

By louisehartmann

President Obama addressed the nation last night in his second State of the Union. He laid out a broad agenda of future government investments in education, infrastructure, clean energy, and technology and innovation. As far as a path forward on debt reduction – the President called for a 5 year freeze on non-defense discretionary spending - and a nearly $100 billion cut to the Pentagon’s budget. He pledged he will end President Bush’s failed education program No Child Left Behind, and assured the nation that troops in Afghanistan will begin coming home in July of this year. As far as specifics – the President didn’t mention the words “climate change” – though he did set goals for new energy use. Calling for America to be the first nation with 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 – and promising by 2035 – America will derive 80% of it’s energy from clean and renewable sources.

And finally the President drew a line in the sand when it came to health reform – chiding House Republicans for trying to repeal the new health reform law instead of working to make it better. Ultimately – President Obama outlined a progressive agenda of government investment to rebuild our nation – something that’s desperately needed. Even though the new seating arrangements in the House chamber dampened many of the boisterous and partisan applauding episodes that normally accompany a State of the Union – there were still several agenda items that Republicans clearly were not willing to lend their support – or applause – to. When the President touted his reform of the student loan industry – removing wasteful bank subsidies – and allowing more children to have access to federal Pell Grants – the Republicans sat on their hands.

When the President called for greater investment to high-speed rail…no applause from the Right. When the President defiantly said he would not allow health insurance companies to continue their abuses – Republicans seemed to disagree. The President called for end to tax breaks for the richest 2% in our nation – the GOP shunned the idea. And when the President called for an end to big oil subsidies – Speaker Boehner practically choked.

And nowhere could you see the difference between the two parties more drastically than in Congressman Paul Ryan’s GOP response to the State of the Union. It was a "short on specifics - long on partisan attacks" speech that focused solely on our nation’s deficit – and not on what America needs to do to compete with the world in the future. It’s pretty clear to see – while the Democrats are looking forward – the Republicans are looking backward.

As the Conservative William F. Buckley so famously said – “A Conservative is a fellow who is standing athwart history yelling, ‘stop’!” After last night’s display by the GOP – Buckley couldn’t be more right.

Comments

We need a tax code with no loop holes and everybody pays. progressive in one way and regressive in an other.Progressive in that it starts at 10% and goes to 40% the top rate. But regressive in that you continuously earn more before moving up the scale.

example; 0 -15,000$ 10%15,000 - 17,500$ 11% +250017,500 -20,500$ 12% +300020,500 - 24,000$ 13% +3500goto55,500 - 62,500$ 20% +7,000All money up to this point goes to FICA ,now, this is my guess and may need to be something else, but from here up all money goes to general funds

62,500 - 70,000$ 21% +7,50070,000 - 80,000$ 22% +10,00080,000 - 100,000$ 23% +20,000goto920,000 - 1.2M$ 30% +100,000goto65M -85M 39% 20M85M and up 40%Everybody pays and everybody has S.S. and Medicare . No loopholes, no capital gains, no notes from your mother, no ducking your taxes. The right always goes on about those that pay no taxes, this is why we should start at 10%. This many generate more money in FICA, for S.S. and Medicare than is needed but, the real burr under the saddle of the right wingers would be that, the poor could pay for the health care for the whole nation. Poor people need not pay for military needs in money , because they pay for it in blood.

Thirty years of supply side thinking on taxes, thirty years of military over spending, thirty years of wars not needed, all with one common goal, dismantle any and every social program.

I truly believe this to be a plan set in place to put this country so far in debt that there would be no way out, other than destroying the safety net the protects the poor and the working class from the predatory capitalism.

Thirty years they have been waging class warfare, and our media won't even say the words. CLASS WARFARE.

What bothers me more is the fact-free coverage from the corporate media.

1. NBC coverage featuring Obama's "new" turn to bipartisanship, as if he has not made cooperation and compromise the main feature of his administration -- often to the exasperation of his real supporters.

2. Today, I listen to NPR, and they play Bachmann's statement that 16,500 IRS officers will be "enforcing Obamacare." Not one of the commentators on this so-called "liberal" media outlet mentioned that the statement was hogwash. Republicans know they can lie repeatedly because they know their pets in the media -- not just Faux Noise -- will not call them out on it. They can claim that the entire national debt was created by Obama over the last two years, and no one will mention the massive debt created under Bush and Reagan.

Today on the Shawn Hannity radio advertising jingle. "take america back" . How far back is back far enough Shawn ? Shawns mission is so terribly singular. Hate Obama, Obama is the root of all evil. End of story. 4th grade recess in a one room school house out in the middle of nowhere in 1954. Argggggghhhhhhh !

My intent was to allow more money to be earned each time you raise the rate. An additional 2,500 gets you to the 11% rate 3,000 gets you to 12%, 3,500 gets you to 13%, 4,000 gets you to 14% and so on. I may not have been very clear on this

The man on the right seated behind the President appeared flatulent, causing the Vice-president's lips to remain mostly in an upside down U position during the speech.

The scholarly President presented his case like a lawyer, and did well scanning the room side to side with equality, but never looked directly at me out in TV Land like Walt Disney and President Kennedy used to do.

There was noted only one yellow tie in the entire audience, forgivingly tempered somewhat with a brown cross-hatched print.

Senator McCain wore a very dark red tie over a Copenhagen blue shirt, and as usual, the Supreme Justices were all in black.

I think we should have had some sort of National Prayer which acknowledged that social injustice and homeland violence is worsening, created by ill-intentioned people who are too strong for us. If we don't put an end to the oppressive devices which ultimately result in throngs of uneducated, unhealthy people stealing, killing, becoming addicts, rapists or mass murderers, no amount of guns is going to make this a nice place to live.

There was not one person in attendance at the State of the Union Address whose cousin's only book had been eaten by a rat.

Our Health is our Greatest Wealth. So I am not interested in all these BS engineering advances which will detract from taking care of an ill society. What, are we supposed to do, work sick from lack of medical care and too much chemical cheese?

Obama made several right turns in his speech: cutting Medicare and Medicaid; forcing schools to compete for a limitied amount of funding; urging Army recruiters be allowed on campuses; and responding to unfair "free" trade laws by saying "work harder!" and making more "free" trade agreements.

However, the worst thing he did, in terms of future generations, is to call nuclear power "clean" energy. By placing it on the same footing with wind and solar, he dooms thousands of generations to cancer, birth defects and misery as we continue to generate radioactive wastes that will last millions of years. For the past 60 years, nuclear power has acted as a giant sponge, sucking up all our research and infrastructure dollars. Meanwhile, the rest of the world has embraced wind and solar and are literally leaving us in the radioactive dust. Nukes are dirty, expensive and dangerous. They are in no way clean energy. Obama has shown a terrible lack of environmental wisdom by choosing to waste further resources on this horrible technology.

ok, no problem. i would argue that it should start a little lower, maybe 7.5%, but on the whole idea i agree with you about everyone paying. of course it would depend on what gov't income versus outlays are. i think a constitutional balanced budget amendment would help control budgeted spending, because we do need to get the debt under control.

"And nowhere could you see the difference between the two parties more drastically than in Congressman Paul Ryan’s GOP response to the State of the Union. It was a "short on specifics - long on partisan attacks" speech..."

Considering Medicare's Chief Actuary just admitted that Rep. Ryan's plan could control health care costs better than Obamacare, I'd say you need to rethink the idea that it is "short on specifics."

People on the left complain that conservatives "don't have a plan." Yet, here is Rep. Ryan, not only with a plan, but a plan that is based in reality and shows serious promise of cutting needless spending. The question is, will progressives attack his plan with sound reasons as to why it won't work, or will they just attack him?

"The President called for end to tax breaks for the richest 2% in our nation – the GOP shunned the idea."

This is a fundamentally flawed idea and having it "shunned" is exactly appropriate.

President Obama mentioned ending tax breaks in the context of cutting back government spending, i.e. that somehow a loss in tax revenue is the same as government spending more. Not only is this insulting to the American people, it's flawed economics.

That theory implies that tax money rightfully belongs to the government and not to the people. It is completely backwards to the very nature of our system of government and has proven disasterous multiple times throughout history. The theory that the money people earn rightfully belongs to government and can only be gained back by being allowed by said government is quite possibly the biggest threat to economic freedom that there possibly could be.

From the radio program, it seems as though you have read Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations at least once or twice. Perhaps browse through that a time or two again and maybe some Hayek, to boot.

"So tonight, I am proposing that starting this year, we freeze annual domestic spending for the next five years." Thus spoke the President last night. "Domestic" spending means non-war and non-military spending. Over half of our public spending goes to wars and the military. Even the President's own catfood (deficit) commission recommended cutting $100 billion. Why leave it out of the freeze? This may be why:

"And we've sent a message ... to all parts of the globe: We will not relent, we will not waver, and we will defeat you." That's going to be expensive, and President Obama promised lower taxes on corporations in the same speech. He's already signed off on tax cuts for billionaires. Spending cuts will have to come somewhere else.

"Already, we've frozen the salaries of hardworking federal employees for the next two years. I've proposed cuts to things I care deeply about, like community action programs. The Secretary of Defense has also agreed to cut tens of billions of dollars in spending that he and his generals believe our military can do without." But those little cuts out of the $1 trillion we spend on the military each year are planned for future years, not this one. The President is expected to propose a larger military budget for the third year in a row next month. And he has thus far consistently used off-the-books supplemental bills to add more funding to his wars.

If you oppose this agenda, add your name now to a growing movement to push back.

President Obama's sense of balance was in evidence last night. Balance surely is not achieved by discounting one side of an argument but by acknowledging both sides (actually more than two, for in this case, each side is at least split in half). Thus, he has assumed the goal of our Founding Fathers, esp. Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, who founded the Democratic Republican party-- the forerunner of today's Democratic Party. It is a noble cause that serves our democracy/republic well and should be taken up by all Americans.

When I was 16 or 17, I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountain Head by Ayn Rand. Even at that age I was astute enough to know that it was all a bunch of hooey. That also applies to all this Libertarian mumbo jumbo pontification. .And I was not even that bright.

Here is a challenge for you - if Libertarinism is all so Great, if 0 taxes is de facto the greatest thing since White Bread, if government is evil and not required, then provide just ONE, that is Just ONE, example of this lovely Utopian ideal that has existed on this Planet since the edenic days of Adam and Eve! Just One!

If I read the Bible right, even then Paradise was infected by a Snake, which in the end has made all of our lives here on Earth a living Hell ever since!

Anyone can say they can build a 200 foot tall Pyramid with a simple rope and winch. That is easy talk. The real test is the finished product, and that, Mr Ryan and his cohorts will never ever be able to deliver!

But with Faith, one can move Mountains. Or so it says in scripture. That is what President Obama put forward in his speech - Faith and Hope. That WE as a PEOPLE can meet and rise above hugh obstacles and attain our goals, That was the message I heard.

Yet from the Right - Nothing but "Doom & Gloom"! CUTS CUTS CUTS! And NO we Can't!

That's an interesting request. How about, before asking for that, you provide one, just one -- pretty please, as you put it -- example of a serious libertarian movement that advocates "0 taxes" being "de facto the greatest thing since White Bread."

I'll be waiting.

To the commenter that said Rep. Ryan's plan is "fear mongering," how about -- like I suggested in one of my other comments -- you attack the plan, not the person, okay?

Attacking the person is what one does when they have no valid argument.

My subscription here expires soon, and I won't be renewing. It's been discourging to see Hartmann become an Obamabat, but that's the nature of power in this country. You either align yourself with it, or you're an outsider, and apparently Thom can't bear to be on the outside looking in. Thus are people so easily corrrupted.

I liken it to metal fragments spread out on a table - run a maget over them, and the align. There is but one route to reform in this country, in it is to organize outside the two parties, which I call "The Party." We all know what Republicans are, and they are out there and open about it, and are easy to debate and even defeat. However, the insidious part of our political structure is the Democrats, who act as a catch-all for dissent. Once a popular movement is absorbed by the Democrats, it is marginalized, and eventually dissipates.

So listen carefully to Hartmann now, always wanting to "believe" in Obama despite so much evidence that this is not wise, and telling people to join the Democratic Party and get active. Probably unknowingly, he's become part of the problem.He's helping to funnel dissent into The Party, where is disappears to the margins.

I'll miss some of Thom's guests, as he has some good ones now and then, but I won't miss the chatterbox, the Obamabat, the Democratic tool.

Mr Twisted - My request was that those who Advocate "Libertarian, no Taxes, Free Trade, no Governement" Utopias, that they provide ONE, just one example, of a real life government or country that works, or ever has, based on this ideology. Just one example. I am still waiting.

As to your comment about attacking Mr Ryan's Draconian Plan - What Plan? If you see a "Plan", please let us all know what it is. All I heard was a lot of End-OF-The-World fear mongering and nothing much else. But then again, if you know what the plan entails. again let us all know. THEN we all can argue about it.

"The Party" - wonder which Corporation Bank or Plutocrat will eventually buy and control this one (Already the Corporates have their hooks into the Tea Party Populists!) The Democrats are NOT the problem. The problem is the new Oligarchy/Plotocracy. Too much money in too few hands. And last I looked the majority - 80-90% - are of the Conservative persuation. Before you want to fully dismiss a political party, you may want to reassess what the real problem is. As to Thom, he does not always toe the Democratic agenda! He at times can be very dismissive of it!

"We all know what Republicans are, and they are out there and open about it, and are easy to debate and even defeat."

Obama's SOTOS was complete bull. Yes, he actually articulated a Democratic vision which seems to be a first in a while. However, that vision, in accord with his political-economic behavior is decidedly corporatist. He said he was going to create jobs yet he said not one word about small business, where most new jobs are created. Yes, he did sign an SBA bill last year that provided $30B over several years for small business but it is dwarfed in comparison to TARP, zero percent trillions at the Fed window for the guys that Emmanueled us, and his corporate subsidies provided to the insurance companies et. al. .... It's no secret that health care premiums are skyrocketing! What happens when you add fifty million new subsidized customers to a market that is allowed to collude and set prices? Yeah, some people are being helped with the denial of care issues and that is a good thing, but we are all paying the hidden tax through the likes of Blue Sheild's 59% increase this year alone. I haven't heard one Democratic official admit this (and I am a very active Democrat.)

If you cut the entire domestic discretionary budget you only get 12% savings. It is nothing compared to the big four: Social Security, military spending, Medicare, and the fact that corporations for the most part, don't pay taxes while we support their exportation of our jobs! Social Security is supposed to be a stand alone trust fund. That leaves military spending ($1.2 trillion if you count all military spending hidden throughout the federal budget like mercenaries in the State Department budget, the black budget, myriad intel agencies, Homeland Security, nukes at DOE ad nauseum...), Medicare and seeing to it that corporations actually start paying taxes. Obama offered a "whopping" $15B in "defense cuts." That's less than a day and a half out of military spending for an entire year. Bet that Medicare will be savaged and soon!

Today the Courts said that the Health Care Bill is unconstitutional. Medicare has never been unconstitutional. Yet, when we called for "Medicare for everyone who wants it..." It would easy to expand what we already have with very low overhead..." We were headed off at the pass, not by the Republicans but by Obama, personally. That my friend is an established historical fact. And, now we know why because Obama and his corporate cronies are going to cut the hell out of Medicare and that just wouldn't do ... Way too obvious....

Yes, the economy is growing but for whom? Main Street is still in the toilet and the banksters are sitting on two trillion dollars of our money that they won't lend to small business and Obama didn't say a damn thing about that either! WTF? Yeah, maybe "on average" we are doing great (and even that is debatable), but when you consider the huge and growing income disparity gap, the vast majority of Americans are hurting badly and will be doing so for "a generation" or more according to the "Finacial Crisis Inquiry Report."

I suggest you actually read the Report. Why have many of the perps circulated through this Administration? Why did Obama can"effin' moron" Emmanuel (gee, no "GE," I guess I'm some sort of "purist" and a member of the "professional left,"according to "Goober" Gibbs and Obama) only to replace him with Daley (JP Morgan.) Why did Obama's FCC approve the largest yet media consolidation when he pledged he would not do that and then turn around and appoint a direct beneficiary, the Chairman of GE, to his "jobs creation"panel, which has shipped over fifty-percent of its own jobs overseas?" And, Obama did this the Friday before SOTUS! What a hypocrite! The Emperor has no clothes and you know it!

While he waxed eloquent about a corporate driven green revolution somewhere off in the horizon, his Administration approved the sale and distribution of genetically modified Monsanto alfalfa that will impact practically the entire grocery food chain, without adequate study and with a whole lot of scientic and public opposition. And, he did this within days of the SOTUS!

BTW, if you do read the Financial Inquiry Report you will quickly realize that Obama's so called Financial Reform bill would not have stopped this crisis. Sorry to pop your bubble, but his so called "Financial Reform" is so much crap. The Inquiry Commission says in no uncertain terms that the conditions that created this mess still exist under this Administration. Like the "public option," the beef, Glas-Stegal provisions were removed by him, not the Republicans.

He said that he values "transparency" yet he held over thirty private, unannounced meetings with insurance company and HMO execs and he had to be sued under the Freedom of Information Act before he would release the documents and admit it. Dick Cheney's Energy Task Force anyone? He didn't have to be so duplicitous with "Financial Reform" because after all, he had Timmy, and Larry, and Rahm, et. al., right there in the White House with him.

And, he compromised with no one. He capitulated! He personally knifed the "public option" before he ever confronted the Republicans for a vote. Compromise requires BOTH parties to work together. How many Republicans voted for the final Health Care bill? How many are trying to tear it down right now? What "'effin'" compromise is he talking about? There was no compromise. NONE. ZIP. NADA. ZERO!

The real problem in this Country is the Corporate Republican Party AND the Democratic Leadership Council. You know as well as I that they BOTH are wholly owned susidiaries of the corporations. When Obama says that he is moving towards the middle, what he means is that he is serving the corporations, and you know that too. Why do you keep trying to pretend otherwise? In order to solve a problem first you have to recognize it and then acknowledge it. After listening to you for quite a while, and hearing you talk so much "psychology" on your show, I can only conclude that you are in a state of denial. You engage in wishful thinking and flights of fancy that somehow Obama will change... This is a guy who back when supported Joe Lieberman running against his own Party! Those are the kind of dellusional side effects that accompany denial.

You are spreading that denial which is helping to confuse your listeners. After Obama oversees the gutting of Medicare (and it is going to happen, you can take that to Goldman Sachs) are you still going to tell us that our health care system is much improved since Obama took office? "Medicare for everyone?" I've heard you say that many times. What you in fact are doing, is helping to set the table so that these greed heads can carve that up too!

What we are wittnessing in Egypt is the direct result of decades of Republican and DLC corporate foreign policy. It is nothing less than the collapse of American Empire in the Middle East after shoring up corrupt dictators for coprporate profits. Stay tuned, because if we don't take our government back from the corporatistas, and that includes Obama by his own actions, what we are seeing in Egypt is going to be happening right here (see my comments on Egypt here under that topic.)

You know as well as I that the future does not lie in a hierarchicaly organized corporate world. The post - modern condition requires a much more egalitarian society. Obama is going in the exact opposite direction embracing the tired and corrupt corporate model of governance. And, I've heard you quote Mussolini: "Facism is nothing other than government by corporation. HELLO?! The Green Revolution will not be brought to you by vetically integrated mega - corporations. If you think it will can I have some of whatever it is you are smoking?

The President also demostrated that he and his staff know next to nothing about the educational crisis in this Country (Ed.D. ABD Media Studies, here.) He's still running with that "W," "No Child Left Behind" manure. Obama unabashedly used the educational frame right out of the Business Roundtable. They are the ones who manufactured "No Child Left Behind." I'm a fan of Lakoff but he missed this one and it is really obvious. Teaching to a test is exactly what is wrong with US schools. And, sending kids to to school earlier and longer is way behind what we now know about childhood and learning development. Forward looking? Are you kidding?

The countries that are kicking our ass in education (BTW IS NOT CHINA BUT EUROPE) let their kids be kids, let them play and develop their brains before they send them to school at age seven, not 4 years old in pre-school!!! The best indicator in this Country for childhood educational success is the income level of your parents. Since Obama has joined with the Republicans and the Democratic Leadership Council (brought to fore by Buba Bubble Blower, Job Exporter, and Ultimate Incarcerator) to destroying the American middle class... well so much for that! We need smaller class size, extra-curricular activities and more resources for public schools. His speech on education was all smoke and mirrors! So much for his "Sputnick Moment." It was more like another BS moment.

Obama said he was going to change the way Washington works. Really? Washington has swallowed him whole. Yeah, I know you've said some things like this but you are all over the map on Obama. What I am writing about is your glowing praise of his SOTUS. I'm sorry to say this but you are starting to sound like that little techie kiss ass over at Daily KOs and all of his yuppie apparatchiks. Obama and they all ought to get an award for stealing defeat from the jaws of victory! I'm still trying to figure out how they managed the worst off year election results in seventy years after two terms of "W." Amazing! That is quite an accomplishment.

So when Obama talks about his great accomplishments he really ought to bring this up instead and how he managed to piss off the people who brought him to the dance or how Eric Holder suppressed the youth vote the week before the elections by saying that he was going to continue his pot raids et. al. after Obama said during his campaign that he was going to stop that too (talk about a place to cut a totally failed program from one end to the other). You don't think that had an effect? When Obama held his "youth town meeting" Friday on You Tube, that's all he heard! Two groups that supported Obama in 2008 did not show up in 2010: progrssives and young people. They couldn't have deflated their 2008 base any better than if they had planned it. Over there at Daily Kos they are saying that Ed Shutlz is dumb for pointing out the Administration's political hackery. What do computer hacks know about public policy anyway? From where I sit after thirty years in the policy arena, they don't know their own butts from first base!

Wow! After reading this I now know we have the WRONG MAN as President!

When are you running? And if you do I hope you win! And then I will enjoy myself as you, in turn, are "Swallowed Whole" by Washington as you so eloquently phrase it.

And of course judging from your pic you will not have all that excess baggage of being "Black" and "Illegitimate" as Obama has. That should make it a lot easier for you!

You know, it's easy to criticize someone about his/her technique of shoveling dung - it's another to get down and actually do the shoveling yourself. One way or another is still stinks and still has to be shoveled.

'Wow! After reading this I now know we have the WRONG MAN as President!"

You do support the WRONG man as President. You also sound like a DLC Republocrat because you aren't making an intelligent argument nor are you addressing any of the facts that I've documented. All you are doing is name caling and implying racism. Briliant! According to Dr. King you qualify because all you are doing is "judging a man by color of his skin and not the content of his character." 'Can't have it both ways. Some advice: Never dwell on what a politician says; Watch what they do.

BTW, Obama is also white by race or did you miss that too? You can blame the whole thing on the white part. That is fine with me. Only I'm not Anglo. I am only second generation American, and I am an ethnic Slavic. You know what Slavic means? It means "slave." In case you missed it, we lost forty million people in a thing called World War Two. Another great "compromiser," Neville Chamberlin did us in.

What next? Are you going to tell me that Clarence Thomas is a great Supreme Court Justice just because he has dark skin? Care to quote the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Obama? He said a whole lot worse about Obama than I've ever heard. Is he a racist too? And how do you explain Obama's support for Joe Lieberman against his own Party before he was supposedly doing the shoveling you refer to? Or can you explain why he appointed Larry "Goldman Sachs" Summers to head his Council of Economic Advisers? This is the same Larry Summers who as President of Harvard fired Cornell West and wanted to destroy the Black Studies program at Harvard and then campaigned for the same thing throughout the Ivy League. Got an explanation for that? If Obama is being forced to do all this then he isn't his own man. Either way we loose.

By the way you don't know my story. Do you believe that only black people suffer prejudice, inequality, and oppression? Just like a Republocrat, go ahead and support a guy who is working for your oppressers! And, you missed the part where I worked in the public policy arena for thirty years. Apparently you have a reading comprehension problem also. I'll be willing to compare my track record for this Country against yours any "'effin'" (if ther ever was a town that needs a mayor with tourettes syndrome, it has to be Chicago) day of the week...

Obama is a total sellout and you know it. It just pisses you off to admit it so you have to turn against the people telling the truth. The most "audacious" thing I ever saw Obama do was to ungraciously rip an elderly black woman on national TV for saying that "she was disappointed in him." Nice guy, eh? I'll agree with you that it stinks and that he's shoveling it. One needs hip waders around that guy and his entourage...

"He pledged he will end President Bush’s failed education program No Child Left Behind"

Dear Louise and Thom,

Obama does give a great speech. So. By his actions he has done pretty much the opposite of what he said he would do with a couple of rare exceptions. Even though he talked of replacing "No Child Left Behind" he did not "pledge it" and he still used the same old tired indusrial competiveness frame that it was built on. As a matter of fact those changes were the result of legislation he was practically forced to sign. IT WASN'T HIS IDEA AND HE PRETTY MUCH FOUGHT IT ALL ALONG. In fact that legislation was waiting for him! Don't pretend you don't know that game: Call it something different... but do what you please anyway... He is a master of that... The entire frame of the speech was "corporate competitiveness' and that includes his spin on education. And, that's all it is, just spin! And you regurgitate it with rock solid conviction. Please, know what you are talking or writing about... I heard the speech. I am an educator and I have been fighting "No Child Left Behind" for years.

Thom, as for your "Medicare for everyone," I told you he is going to rip it up, he has no other choice given his stated political-economic priorities. This is what he said: "This means further reducing health care costs, including programs like Medicare and Medicaid, which are the single biggest contributor to our long-term deficit."

I'm going to have to drop you as well like some of the other people in here. I can't handle your Obama schizophrenia anymore. When you figure out where you stand maybe you'll start making more sense. Oh, and BTW, just a hint, if I really wanted to know what the wingnuts are saying, I'd listen to them. As it is. I don't. You radio shills just keep bouncing back and forth with your "He said, she said..." I know, you all are just trying to raise your ratings with all that phoney drama. Did you ever hear what John Stewart said about "Crossfire." What he said!

You haven't responded to a single criticism with any kind of facts and all you apparently know how to do is call names and race bait. That's quite a talent. I haven't trashed Obama. Everything I have said is verifiable. By your logic then, he has trashed himself. I have pointed out that his actions rarely match his words and that he is politically tone deaf. He in fact has trashed his own base! Unlike you, I have provided and documented everything I say.

What conspiracies are you refering to anyway that make you think the "plutocrats" forced everything Obama has done so far? Did you ever stop to think that maybe he's joined them? Is this more of your anti-intellectual raging? Is he is own man? If he isn't then he's not the leader you claim he is!

Let's go down his list of hires shall we? I think you'll notice some disturbing similarities among the key staff he has appointed:

Larry Summers - Hired by Obama as Director of White House National Economic Council. Freidmanite Wall Streeter and former President of Harvard who fired Cornell West (Larry Summers is not fit to tie Dr. West's shoes!) and tried to destroy the Black Studies program at Harvard and then in the rest of the Ivy League. Fired from Harvard for conflict of interest and disparaging racist and sexist commentary. Key player in starting the financial crisis with a direct line to Goldman Sachs.

Robert Gates - "W's" Secretary of Defense. CIA, NSC; On many corporate boards.

Ben Bernacke - "W's" Fed. Chair, "failed to forsee the financial crisis." Still handing out zero percent interest loans at the Fed. "window" to the "banksters" in the trillions of dollars who refuse to loan to small business despite Obama rhetoric.

Ken Salazar - Secretary of Interior - Offshore drilling enthusiast who failed to follow the National Environmental Policy Act thus urshering in the largest ocean oil blowout in American history. Failed to secure Obama's promised BP twenty billion dollar relief fund, despite Obama's ironclad guarantee to the American people (would you care to see the playback?) that he "negotiated" (there he goes again!) such fund. A fund of anywhere near such size does not exist! I specifically remember saying and writing at the time that that was never going to happen. It didn't! Has contiued the same skirting of environmental law on three projects that are as dangerous. if not more so, than the Macondo project, currently underway...

Timothy Geithner - Appointed by Obama as Secretary of the Treasury: Kissenger Associates; US Treasury; Council on Foreign Relations; International Monetary Fund; Chairman of New York Fed. Reserve Bank; Failed to forsee financial crisis; Collapse of Lehman Brothers; Tanking of Citigroup on his watch right beneath him... Associate of Larry Summers ...

Bill Daley - Obama's fresh new same ol' same ol' Chief of Staff, Chairman, JP Morgan... personal friend from Chicago.. Oh, I forgot... You said, THEY MADE HIM DO IT?

In your dreams! What, so you can name call and race bait some more? When you and your man grow a spine and start talking to Republicans like you rag on old ladies and people who used to be your friends then maybe I'll quit. Just because I'm leaving the Hartman "Obamabat Cave" doesn't mean I'm done exposing that guy for who he really is! May you, eat genetically modified, Obama approved food the rest of your life! May you drink Obama dumped chemical dispesants from the Gulf of Mexico! May you live next door to an Obama approved nulear power plant! May his Wall Street friends drain every last dime from your bank account! May you work at Chinese labor rates in a GE factory the rest of your life! When you finally try to retire may you you discover that they've also stolen your pension and may your Medicare be gutted! And, when Obama gets his internet kill switch may Thom's show be the first one fried! You all deserve no less!

"I'm going to have to drop you as well like some of the other people in here. I can't handle your Obama schizophrenia anymore. When you figure out where you stand maybe you'll start making more sense."

Your words - see your comment above. Short term memory maybe?

And oh, I am A Vietnam Veteran, worked DOD for 30 years AND Retired!

I just love my Country, the Constitution, our voting previliges and intelligent discourse. And as to your last post I do not believe that the discouse is going to be anywhere near Intelligent. So this is it. And unless my short term memory also ceases to function, no more discourse.

One of the really weird ironies of politics these days is the huge divergence between what the American people actually want and what the radical right-wingers in Washington actually do. You won’t hear this on Fox So-Called News, but right now the American people are as progressive as they ever have been.

"Never one to shy away from the truth, Thom Hartmann’s collected works are inspiring, wise, and compelling. His work lights the way to a better America."

—Van Jones, cofounder of RebuildTheDream.com and author of The Green Collar Economy

From Cracking the Code:

"In Cracking the Code, Thom Hartmann, America’s most popular, informed, and articulate progressive talk show host and political analyst, tells us what makes humans vulnerable to unscrupulous propagandists and what we can do about it. It is essential reading for all Americans who are fed up with right-wing extremists manipulating our minds and politics to promote agendas contrary to our core values and interests."

—David C. Korten, author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community and When Corporations Rule the World and board chair of YES! magazine

From Cracking the Code:

"Thom Hartmann ought to be bronzed. His new book sets off from the same high plane as the last and offers explicit tools and how-to advice that will allow you to see, hear, and feel propaganda when it's directed at you and use the same techniques to refute it. His book would make a deaf-mute a better communicator. I want him on my reading table every day, and if you try one of his books, so will you."